title: Dissection of cardiovascular development and disease pathways in zebrafish.
abstract: The use of animal models in medicine has contributed significantly to the development of drug treatments and surgical procedures for the last century, in particular for cardiovascular disease. In order to model human disease in an animal, an appreciation of the strengths and limitations of the system are required to interpret results and design the logical sequence of steps toward clinical translation. As the world's population ages, cardiovascular disease will become even more prominent and further progress will be essential to stave off what seems destined to become a massive public health issue. Future treatments will require the imaginative application of current models as well as the generation of new ones. In this review, we discuss the resources available for modeling cardiovascular disease in zebrafish and the varied attributes of this system. We then discuss current zebrafish disease models and their potential that has yet to be exploited.
authors.affiliation: Vascular Biology Program, Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital Boston, and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Mably
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000196:embryology* / Q000473:pathology; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology*